Tories now admit they sent Saskatchewan robocall

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

By Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Ottawa Citizen

Matt Meier is the owner of Edmonton-based RackNine Inc., the company whose equipment was used to launch more than 7,000 misleading calls directing voters in Guelph to the wrong polling station in the 2011 federal election.

OTTAWA — A forensic voice-analysis expert has matched a voice recording from a mysterious company that sent out a robocall “push poll” about Saskatchewan riding boundaries to the firm used to send out the infamous “Pierre Poutine” calls in the last election.

After initially denying any involvement, the Conservatives said Tuesday that they had failed to identify themselves as the source of the voice-broadcast to Saskatchewan residents last week.

The party blamed an “internal miscommunication” for the failure to identify itself and the origin of the call.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale filed a complaint with the CRTC Tuesday morning, alleging the failure to name the source broke telemarketing rules — the same offence for which Liberal MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association was fined last year.

The pre-recorded message sent to some Saskatchewan residents last Thursday told recipients that proposed changes to the province’s riding boundaries would pit urban areas against rural ones, and offend “Saskatchewan values.”

The robocall was presented as an interactive public-opinion survey — an American tactic called “push polling” — but appeared designed to rally opposition to changes to the ridings that would help opposition parties at the expense of Conservatives.

The originating number of the call, shown on recipients’ call displays, was answered by a generic voice recording saying no one was available to answer.

But on Monday, a recorded male voice on the outgoing message identified the line as belonging to “Chase Research,” a company that does not seem to exist in Saskatchewan.

The voice sounded similar to the voice of Matt Meier, owner of Edmonton-based RackNine Inc., the company whose equipment was used to launch more than 7,000 misleading calls directing voters in Guelph to the wrong polling station in the 2011 federal election.

The same voice and company name, Chase Research, was also heard on another number affiliated with a “push poll” sent out to Alberta residents during last year’s provincial election. That call offered a highly prejudicial poll asking voters which kinds of tax increases proposed by Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford they favoured.

The Wildrose Party was suspected by some of involvement in the call but its origin was never confirmed. Meier’s company has worked for Wildrose as well as the federal Conservatives.

After the Citizen made inquiries of Meier, the outgoing messages on the two numbers were replaced by out-of-service messages.

The Citizen and Postmedia News then asked U.S.-based forensic audio expert Ed Primeau to analyze the recordings of the outgoing Chase Research phone message and compare them with the outgoing voice message on Meier’s own phone.

Primeau, who has testified as an expert witness in dozens of cases in American courts and overseas, is a board member of the American Board of Recorded Evidence and a member of the American College for Forensic Examiners International.

He said he is 95-per-cent certain that Meier recorded the outgoing messages used by the mysterious Chase Research.

“He has a distinct style of speaking,” he said. “Everybody has a distinct style. It’s like a fingerprint.”

The cadence of one phrase used in the messages — “and reason for call” — is identical, he said.

A frequency analysis confirms the match, he said. “They’re almost identical in the spectrum,” he said. “I’m looking at these and it’s insane how close they are.”

In an email Saturday, Meier had offered a cryptic response when asked if his voice-broadcasting companies, RackNine and 2call.ca, were involved in the Saskatchewan call.

“Thanks for thinking of me, but your fascination is unwarranted.”

On Tuesday, after the voice analysis, Meier failed to respond to repeated calls and emails to himself, his company and his lawyer, R. Justin Matthews, seeking comment.

Matthews told Postmedia he “has not been retained to respond to your inquiries.”

Saskatchewan Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski told the Regina Leader Post last week that Saskatchewan Tory MPs were not responsible for the calls.

“Certainly polling is not something I’m doing and I’m pretty sure I’d know if any of my colleagues was doing something like that and I haven’t heard a thing. That’s just something I wouldn’t have done anyway.”

Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey also originally denied the party was involved, writing in an email Friday, “We are not polling.”

On Tuesday, however, after the Citizen and Postmedia received the forensic analysis, and sent emails to the party and Meier, DeLorey sent a release to the parliamentary press gallery saying that the party did make the calls.

“There was an internal miscommunication on the matter, and the calls should have been identified as coming from the Conservative Party,” said DeLorey.

Throughout the ongoing robocalls investigation, which stems from the May, 2011 federal election, Meier has maintained that he never knew his robcalling service was being misused by a person known to him as “Pierre Jones.” He has co-operated with Elections Canada investigators by providing electronic records to help find the person.

Meier recently settled a defamation claim he had launched against New Democrat MP Pat Martin for comment Martin made about RackNine in the days after the robocalls scandal broke.

Reached Monday, Martin said under the terms of the settlement he can’t discuss any payment, but a source says he is trying to raise $100,000 to help with it. He said he has already received a $10,000 donation from his former carpenters’ union. All the donations will be reported to the ethics commissioner and those over $500 will be publicly disclosed.

An independent commission has proposed boundary changes that would create five entirely urban ridings in Regina and Saskatoon, instead of the mixed rural-urban seats now in place. Conservatives are opposed to the changes, saying they would divide the province and create unfeasibly large rural ridings.

Goodale, the only opposition MP from Saskatchewan, said the prejudicial tone of the push poll was part of what seems to be “abusive anti-democratic behaviour” by the Conservative Party.

“Their political objectives trump every ethical rule and every regulation of the CRTC and decent behaviour,” he said.